Grateful to have this out in @intsecurity.bsky.social. @jessicacweiss.bsky.social and I show how Cold War analogies obscure more than they reveal about US-China relations. 1/6

Faculty and staff at the University of Nottingham are on a grade strike (MAB) against 600 layoffs while university leaders take home fat checks. The good folks at my former employer deserve so much better. Stand with them by donating to their hardship fund:

Ooof. Read and publish agreements have flaws (see my blog) but not being included will make things difficult for Nottingham academics.

But... new building? What about the shiny new building? It won an award you know.

💥New | Qualitative research can and should be more open and reproducible ✍️ @patrickdunleavy.bsky.social & @twm.bsky.social #OpenResearch #QualitativeResearch #AcademicSky

Yesterday Kier Starmer announced Labour will nationalise British Steel, and save 2700 jobs. Today, the Uni of Nottingham put 2700 staff at risk of redundancy. This is just one university. Across the UK 15,000 higher education jobs need saving. Where is the rescue package for our universities?

It is good to see the Education Select Committee’s report on Higher Education and Funding. The Committee recognises the severity of the financial situation facing institutions in England and the knock-on effects on subject provision. 🧵

My policy brief on Judicial Capture is now out, as part of The Authoritarian Ecosystem collection by @wfd.org and PSA Courts are now sites of democratic contestation. They can accelerate backsliding or resist it. Understanding how they are captured matters. www.wfd.org/what-we-do/r...

2,700 staff at the University of Nottingham have received 'at risk' letters from the management. The same management which refused to cut their own pay, and the same management which refused to resign after losing £60 million on a disastrous attempt to build a new campus. #JoinAUnion

🚨 NEW REPORT! 🚨 What is the state of the UK academic job market in politics, and what does this mean for the field and #highered? In a new @psaecn.bsky.social report, @lawrencemckay.bsky.social @williamlallen.bsky.social and I find worrying trends in job adverts and HESA data from 2012-25 #PSA26

The call for 2026 APCG Award Nominations is live! The deadline for nominations is May 1st. Nominate scholars for Best Dissertation, Best Graduate Student Paper, Distinguished Africanist, Best Article and Best Book! www.afpol.org/blog/2026-ap...

Fantastic turnout yesterday for our Comparative Politics seminar with our alumnus Boniface Dulani (tallmanfromzomba.bsky.social) from @afrobarometer.bsky.social, discussing whether African democracy is at risk. Packed room and a lively discussion! @uoypolitics.bsky.social

We‘re very excited for the next edition of the Summer School for Women* in Political Methodology in Mannheim! ✨ Join us and apply until 1 March! More info in @melinscribe.bsky.social‘s thread below and here: summerschoolwpm.org Application form: sosci.sowi.uni-mannheim.de/wpm/

CRASSH is inviting scholars from the Global South to apply for funded Visiting Fellowships in Cambridge in Spring 2027 The fellowship theme is 'Enslavement: histories, legacies and afterlives' ⏳ Apply by 16 Feb 2026 www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/global-south-fellowships

If you are thinking about pursuing a political science PhD and are interested in authoritarian politics, broadly understood, consider applying for this funded opportunity:

📣 Junior scholars in public law & courts! The Junior Law & Politics Research Community is accepting proposals for our Spring 2026 virtual seminar series. Grad students, postdocs & junior faculty encouraged to apply! ⏰ Deadline: Jan 12, 2026 👉 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

PhD opportunity at the University of Oxford. The Morelli scholarship funds a doctoral student to work with me on on democratic backsliding, strategies of democratic defense and regeneration, or the rise of illiberalism. Deadline Jan 9. More information at users.ox.ac.uk/~ssfc0073/

Congratulations to @ailitripp.bsky.social for her new book, Why African Autocracies Promote Women as Leaders (OUP, 2025). Learn more about this important scholarship in our latest blog post: www.afpol.org/blog/new-boo...

It's Election Time! Please vote for your new APCG officers. Voting will remain open through Monday, December 15, 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time. www.afpol.org/blog/apcg-of...

🚨Call for Papers ⬇️ Join us in Kraków

Heading to ASA in Atlanta? Join APCG for our business meeting, social, and panels! 🎉 Full details here: www.afpol.org/blog/african...

NEW - How to Distinguish Human Error From Election Fraud: Evidence From the 2019 Malawi Election - https://cup.org/47pxPnc - Johan Ahlbäck & @ryanjablonski.bsky.social #OpenAccess

This year’s call for applications for the Prize Post Doctoral Fellowships in Politics at Nuffield College is now live! It’s a fantastic opportunity for newly minted PhDs to spend three years in a wonderful academic environment: www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/the-college/...

🚨🚨 Final call! Propose a panel for the Law & Courts section at ECPR 2026 (Kraków 🇵🇱, 8–11 Sept). Submit by 31 Oct: 👉 Short title 👉 ≤80-word abstract 👉 1–2 co-chairs + ECPR emails 📧 Send your proposal to: [email protected] & [email protected] @ecpr-law-courts.bsky.social

Grad students in political science and other social sciences! Consider applying to the great 2-week summer program in Qualitative and Multi-Method Research at Syracuse. Info is here: www.maxwell.syr.edu/research/cen...

TODAY: Join the APCG Online Colloquium!

We’re the party of the family. But we’ll deport your spouse for claiming child benefit. We’re the party of traditional values. But we’ll deport you if you become a stay-at-home parent. We’re the party for pensioners. But we’ll deport you if you retire on less than 150% of average pensioner income.

Paper alert 🚨 Researching national narratives and democratic processes? Check out this new article from @eunajo.bsky.social

Heading to APSA in Vancouver? Join APCG for our business meeting, social, and panels! 🎉 Full details here: www.afpol.org/blog/apcg-sc...

Deprived places like Hull are deliberately pushed into further economic decline for what? So that Labour can point to a graph showing reduced net migration? And they expect that this will weaken Farage? www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Great opportunity to present working papers on any topic related to African politics!

This is a great opportunity for ECRs in the social sciences (and beyond): www.writersandartists.co.uk/Bloomsbury-A...

New Book Alert 🚨 In a new blog post, Ato Kwamena Onoma presents his new book: The Undulating Capacity of the State. www.afpol.org/blog/new-boo...

📢 Today at 3:45 PM: Join our panel on democratic self-defense. We’ll bring together perspectives from Africa, Brazil, the Post-Soviet states, Western Europe & the U.S. Don’t miss this conversation. #ecprgc25

Submit to the Junior Law and Politics Research Community by today to be considered for our fall seminar series on zoom!

The YouTube video of my TEDxVitoria Gasteiz talk on the far right was released on the TEDx channel as an 'Editors' pick' 24 hours ago. It has 16,000 views and many comments, some nice, many hateful. My favourite: 'she is a paid actor'. I'll take it as a compliment! www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCvr...

The Junior Law and Politics Research online seminar is back this fall! A supportive space for junior scholars to share work + get feedback. Bullet talks & panels on Zoom. Deadline to submit is Aug 25. Message me if you have questions! forms.gle/yF7uVXcvDnGc... @sivcheruvu.bsky.social

This is a MAJOR development for European Political Science. Thanks & congratulations to those who made it happen, @sarahobolt.bsky.social, @simonhix.bsky.social, the rest of the Council and many others. Time for us to support it in every way we can: SPREAD the word, JOIN the list and EPSS, Donate.

The Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York is offering one scholarship worth £7,300 for the 2025/26 academic year. Deadline: 15 August 2025, 23:59 BST. Find out more and apply 👇 www.york.ac.uk/cahr/news/20...

Do profs respond to student evaluations? On average? Nope. Those who have a more positive view of their own teaching do. But all of these responses are driven by the female teachers. "Male teachers appear to be unresponsive to student feedback." www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Working on Gender-Based Violence? Fantastic new paper from a great colleague @drharrietgray.bsky.social

⏰ Great opportunity for PhD students!

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Comparative politics #ECPRMemberJobs 🔍 A focus on Central and Eastern Africa 🏫 @giga-hamburg.de ⌛ Monday 26 May buff.ly/D1GlrA8 #PolSciJobs #PoliSky #AcademicSky

So is there a hidden plan to get rid of the things the UK was perceived to be good at or respected for in other countries: universities, international development etc…what’s next?Reintroduce museum entry fees? A 6% levy on film and music? Tragic.

Excellent new paper on the psychological trait of authoritarianism on political attitudes and voting 🚨

Beautiful day on campus to mark the final week of classes @uoypolitics.bsky.social

The Call for Papers for our Fall 2025 Workshop series is now OPEN! Polisky Dictatorsky To apply complete this form by May 31st: forms.gle/SvZv98ke4QUT... You can find more information here on the CfP: apsg.work/cfp/

Super afternoon recording an episode of the Politics and Pedagogy podcast, discussing the upcoming launch of @aspirenetwork.bsky.social. Big thanks to @mlebourdon.bsky.social and @ctisleeds.bsky.social for hosting. Do check out the podcast if you haven't already. rss.com/podcasts/pol...

Trump’s repression of free speech & disappearing of foreign students from campuses push academics to look for options elsewhere. Europe’s reaction? Come here! UK meanwhile? Hiking fees & cutting foreign student rights to make UK less attractive cos all that matters is lower immigration numbers 🙄